It's Been A While
by Nevaeh V
Summary: Takes place after Bella jumps off the cliff, Edward never returns. Bella realizes Jacob is all she ever wants. A small Fic inspired by the Staind song It's Been a While.


**Authors Note**: I was inspired to do this small one shot hearing one of my favorite bands sing one of my favorite songs, it's called It's Been A While by Staind. I hope you guys enjoy it and please let me know what you think.

It's Been A While

_It's been a while,_

It's been two weeks and her father is worried again for her daughter's health. It's been quiet a while since he'd last seen his daughter, so dead and pale and full of grief. He thought she was cured, thought that those dark days were long gone, but as he watches his daughter sit there numb with no light in her eyes, just staring at her food and not once actually eating it, he couldn't help but shudder at the sight in front of him.

It's been two weeks since he last seen her smile and it's been two weeks since she went back to the "zombie days" he can see it, and he can't do a damn thing about it. But what he doesn't know, is that this time around Isabella Swan feels dead, because this time she's the only one to blame and she knows it. This time she knows with full certainty that it was her fault and her fault only that the person who gave her a new reason to exist was not next to her.

"Bells honey you should really eat something, you look a lot thinner," Charlie spoke cautiously to the corpse in front of him, and he observed that his daughter is in fact a good ten pounds lighter and he knows that is just not healthy.

He watches as she just gets up and places her dish in the sink and walks up the stairs and into her room without a word. Today is the day he will pick up the phone and make the call that he has been dreading.

"Pick up, pick up. Please pick up," he murmurs into the phone

"Hello," a voice comes on the other end and he can't quite figure out who is it.

"Hello?" the voice says a little louder, and it's only until then that Charlie somewhat recognizes who the voice belongs to.

"Jacob?" he asks.

"Oh hey Charlie, my dad isn't home, he's at Sue's you can reach him there if you'd like?" and Charlie couldn't help but smile at how much Jacob had grown up to be the respectable man that his mother Sarah Black would have been proud of. But he couldn't dwell so much on that, because right now he needed answers.

"Hey kid, actually I was hoping to get a hold of you," he said.

"Of me? Well what can I do for you Chief?" Jacob replied clearly curious.

"Can you tell me why in the hell is my daughter, back to the walking dead?" he really didn't mean to say it so harshly, but it just came out that way.

"I don't know Charlie; I haven't spoken to her in two weeks to be exact," Jacob replied with a sad voice and Charlie's heart went out to him, because he knew what that kid felt for his daughter.

"I know, son it's been two weeks to the day since she hasn't smiled, hasn't eaten but little bites and pieces, she's lost a good ten pounds, and is even more paler than I thought possible," he heard Jacob sigh on the other end.

"Look Charlie, I'm not going to play dumb with you. You know I care for your daughter more than a friend, I've tried to make her happy, but I have to let myself be happy too. I made my feelings for her very clear two weeks ago and she decided that she didn't want me at all. She also decided she needed time away from me, so I'm doing what she asked me to do. I'm staying away from her," Charlie flinched not at the response that Jacob had given him, but because he heard the voice of the kid with the biggest smile he's ever seen, was utterly heartbroken, just like his daughter.

"When are you kids going to realize that you two belong together?" he replied to the broken kid on the phone and he heard Jacob laugh a small sad laugh.

"I already know, but she…… She doesn't think so," Jacob replied.

"She'll come around kid, I know it," and with that Charlie hung up the phone and turned around just to find his daughter looking at him with a distraught yet angry face.

"Who were you just talking to dad?" Bella asked, with tears threatening to spill over and her voice quivering with both anger and pain.

"I was talking to Jacob, I wanted to see if he could help, Bella you've been moping around for two weeks and I can't keep seeing you like this," he said, as he stared at his daughter as she once again turned around and walk away.

"Well don't! Just don't!" was all Bella said as she made her way to her room, tears streaming down her face, she slammed the door behind her and threw herself to her bed and sobbed for the man she had broken, for the man she missed and it was only until then that reality hit her like a ton of bricks, she could live without Edward Cullen, but could not live without Jacob Black.

"Oh my God what have I done?" and with a wild gasp she threw on the first pair of shoes she found and ran out of the house. Bella was greeted with heavy rain but she smiled as she reached her truck for it was the first time in two weeks she felt alive.

As she drove to La Push she couldn't help but think on how stupid she had been for so long, how she had fucked up yet again with the only man that was worth fighting for, the only man that never ever gave up on her. All she hoped for was that she would get a second chance to makes things right.

"But what if I'm too late? What if he doesn't forgive me? What if he moved on and he doesn't love me anymore?" Bella thought out loud. She began to let go of the gas and the ancient truck began to slow down.

"No! Come on Bella you can do this, he deserves this much from you, he deserves to be fought for," Bella answered herself and floored the pedal. By the time she got to the little red house that had become like home she had already opened the door, so when she put the truck in park she just jumped out.

"Come on Bella take those steps," she recited to herself but she couldn't move it was like she was stuck in place. By this time the rain had completely soaked her and she could hardly see the red house that stood but a couple yards away she couldn't even see when Jacob opened the door.

"Bella! What are you doing are you crazy? It's a hurricane out there!" he yelled as he ran up to her. He took a look at the sight in front of him and it took his breath away, every single time, it never failed. I'm a fool is all he could think to himself.

"_It's been a while,"_ Bella said as she let his handsome face register into her brain, God, how much she missed that face is what she thought to herself.

"Bella, come in lets talk inside," Jacob said, and so they did.

When she entered the small house so many memories came into mind, like the last time she was here it was a day very much like this one. The rain had caused a power outage and the only sources of light were the candles that Jacob had lit.

She remembered that day because it was the day she so foolishly jumped of the cliff and didn't realize that the storm had made the sea very dangerous, it was the day that Jacob Black saved her. It was the very same day she spent, sleeping in his arms and thinking she was in heaven. It was the very same day that Jacob drove her home and everything went sour when he kissed her in her living room, and she told him it was a mistake and walked away from him leaving him on the floor alone.

It wasn't until minutes later that she heard the door close shut. She blinked the tears from her eyes and she watched as Jacob looked around for some towels and she couldn't help but marvel at his beauty especially now.

"It's been a while since I've seen the way the candles light your face," she spoke softly but just enough for him to hear.

"Bella STOP you can't just tell me things like that! I made my feelings for you very fucking clear the last time and what did you do? You pushed me away and now your hear telling me this? What do you want from me Bella, huh? Do you want to repeat what happened last time? FINE!" he roared and fell down on his knees, "I kissed you, with all the love that I have and YOU said it was a MISTAKE! You said you couldn't do this with me because you still loved HIM! You walked away from ME! As I fell on my knees, for you! And I begged for forgiveness in vain!"

"I'm sorry Jacob!" Bella screamed, in agony as the tears rolled down her face.

"It was a mistake for me to come here! I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry and…. and…and that I'm so very sorry!" And with that she ran out the door, leaving Jacob on his knees yet again, with his heart in his hands and tears threatening to spill over.

Jacob had been thinking about his options those fourteen days, without her. He knows he can't take much more of this. He knows he's done everything he could to put her back together. He's done all he could to bring her back to life, but she is always moving away from him and doing things that make him think all she wants to do is die. He wants to give up on her, because he knows no matter what he does, he will never be good enough for her and that truth hurts more than anything.

Jacob knows if he is smart he'll get up and walk back to his room shut the door, crawl to his bed, fall asleep and tomorrow start over again a brand new day, in a world without Bella. He convinces himself that he has to, that it's the smart choice, the wiser choice.

He turns around determined, his back against the door Bella just ran out from, he looks at his bedroom door, he's so close.

"Come on Jacob, you have to let her go," he chants to himself, he's two steps from salvation and he takes a step forward. He freezes; he can't find it in himself to take that one last step to freedom.

"I'm a fucking idiot," Jacob mutters to himself in frustration takes his hair in his hands and pulls as hard as he can forward, he thinks maybe that will help him move forward that one last step.

But he can't, he knows too well what he will do next; he's a fool he is sure of that. He turns around and begins to take that one step that leads right back to her.

"Bella!" Jacob calls after her as he leaps towards the front door and breaks into a run to catch the broken girl that he loved. Yes he was an idiot he should have just let her leave but how could he when he could see how much pain she was in.

Bella was before him her hands wrapped around her torso the way she always did when she tried to keep herself together.

"Bells," he spoke and she looked up at him her cheeks were flushed and her tears were camouflaged by the rain but he could see them, he could always see through them, he could always see through her, see the real her.

"Jake, I'm sorry. I love you. That's what I came here to say," Bella sobbed as she looked at her Jacob, and she knew that would always be true, no matter what happened after this Bella would always know that he was hers.

"Bella don't tell me that! I can't handle that," his face showed all the pain he'd kept from her, he broke right in front of her. Jacob knew she had gone too far already. She told him what he'd been dying to hear, what he'd been hoping to hear since he confessed his love to her, what he'd dreamt about in his dreams, Isabella Swan confessing her undying, unyielding love for Jacob Black.

"Can't handle what? The truth?" Bella asked as she raised her hand to Jacob's face, she couldn't bear to see him in pain. She had to comfort him; she had to tell him the truth.

"You don't love me Bella. Please don't do this to me," he begged, and Bella's heart broke for him.

She knew she had to do this; she had to let him know how much she really did mean that. So Bella grabbed his hand and brought it up to her chest, looked up at him as the rain hit both their faces and she brought his face as close as she could get it.

She waited for Jacob to make eye contact with her; she couldn't tell him how much she loved him without him looking into her eyes, knowing that with that he would know the truth when she spoke it.

"I love you. The biggest mistake I've ever made was letting you leave that day. But I don't regret it because if it wasn't for that day and the consequences that it brought, I wouldn't have found out just how much I love you! That I cannot live without you! When you came into my life, it was like you touched my soul," she smiled at how true those words really were.

Jacob stood there stunned, but he knew looking into her eyes when she spoke, that she was telling the truth. She loved him. His heart skipped several beats and something clicked into place. He saw nothing else but Bella and heard nothing but Bella. He was home at last. He smiled down at her and she continued.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm completely and totally in love with you. I love you Jacob Black, and it's been a while, but I can still remember just the way you taste," and with that their lips collided; their love was sealed with a kiss. She was free at last.

_Free at last,_

_Home at last._


End file.
